Impact of coated layers on initial SiC surfaces on graphene structures

Abstract

The high-temperature treatment of a SiC surface in ultrahigh vacuum causes defects such as pits during the formation of graphene. On the other hand, we implied that graphene with low density of pits can be formed when a SiC surface with additional carbon layers, obtained by plasma oxidation followed by HF etching, was annealed. In this study, we investigate the effect of coated layers on an initial SiC surface on the structure of graphene. One example is a SiC surface exposed to Ar ambient, considering that a SiC surface is coated by an ″Ar layer″.